Unsourced Quotes
These are miscellaneous unsourced quotes attributed to HH Bhakti Tirtha Swami, in alphabetical order. Unsourced Quotes * A bona fide speaker might relay a powerful message, but the listener must also have the capacity to receive in order to benefit. * As you observe beauty in the word, consider how exquisite the source of all beauty must be. Allow this awareness to increase your interest in contacting the Godhead itself, the Creator and Reservoir of beauty and pleasure. * By turning away from relative material time, we can better understand transcendental time. Transcendental time can only be appreciated through knowledge of the soul. When we are suffering more than we can bear, when we think that things are just not going right, when we ask ourselves when they will stop, or how long we are going to have to experience this problem or that problem, remember that our suffering is only a fraction of a moment in eternal time. * Dear Lord, Whatever we need to be better servants for Srila Prabhupada’s mission, let it happen or come to us. Whatever we need to have taken away to become pure in Srila Prabhupada’s service, let it be taken away. * I ask you to dedicate this one life to the Lord. I do not want you to undergo the process of samsara, of repeated birth and death, any longer. Engaging wholeheartedly in the process of bhakti is not too difficult a sacrifice for attaining eternal existence. To be able to be free of enemies, once and for all, to be permanently liberated from ongoing negative bombardments, both gross and subtle, that we are forced to face every single day—whatever price we have to pay for that, it is worth it. Even if we have to live every single day in anxiety and frustration, being misunderstood—it is worthwhile because of what is ultimately attainable. * The best way to keep anyone alive is by following their instructions and examplifying their teachings, not just individually but also as a community. * Try to visualize the torment that others immersed in awful situations are forced to undergo. Meditate on the kind of love needed to willingly accept their particular lot. If we are cowards, we cannot think about assuming another’s despair. To make such a compassionate action requires not mere religiosity, but a deep level of spirituality. Readiness to make any sacrifice in order to raise the level of consciousness on the planet requires immense spiritual maturity and a powerful sense of spiritual warriorship. * We are all spiritual warriors, who are blessed by the best, and we have a duty to reach out more to help each other to pass the tests. * We create our own pain and suffering by clinging to all kinds of egocentric nonsense. Despite the fact that we are responsible for our unhappiness, if we ask the Lord to help, we often refuse His assistance when it comes; we behave like prisoners who, eager to be released, ask the jailer to open the gate, but run immediately back inside when the doors do open. Yet we persist in asking, "When are You going to let me out of here?" Although the Lord makes all kinds of help available to get us out of this material world once and for all, our insanity drives us to seek temporary gratification instead. Because in modern society the pursuit of material pleasures is accepted as normal - and all around us people are doing little else - we can easily become convinced that the single-minded quest for "the good life" is appropriate behavior. * We should look at our lives and ask ourselves, "What am I doing to relieve the suffering of others?" * When one is ready to make a sacrifice so that someone else can be relieved of their discomfort, even if it means jeopardizing one’s own sense of security, then one enters the anti-material realm. A material mindset basically means a struggle for survival, resulting in victory for those who are experts in manipulating others. A spiritual mindset is the opposite of the material because it reflects a platform which is free of enviousness and proprietorship, based ultimately on unmotivated, unconditional love. Making sacrifices on behalf of one’s beloved, or even on behalf of a stranger—not begrudgingly or out of guilt or fear, but out of compassion—reflects true love. * When we look at ourselves as human beings, we have to watch our thoughts because our thoughts lead to words. We watch our words; they lead to actions. We have to watch our actions because actions lead to habit. We should watch our habits because they become our culture. * When we read Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and Ramayana, we should clearly understand that these scriptures are just as alive as we are. Never read the scriptures as if they are simply a collection of stories. We should not approach any type of holy book merely to derive data from it, but rather in a mood of appreciating it as a living, literary incarnation of God. To the extent that we engage with the scriptures in an appreciative, personal mood, to that extent will they take on a live quality for us. * Whenever you feel lonely, forsaken and misunderstood, talk to the Lord in the heart and feel solace in knowing that He cares and is always with you.